Controllable growth of one-dimensional chiral nanostructures from an achiral molecule.
One achiral molecule of thioxanthone-anthracene (TX-A) is able to self-assemble into chiral nanowires by tuning the solvent with different polarity. Left- and right-handed nanowires with helix structure can be produced from chloroform and acetic ester solution of TX-A respectively. The SEM and TEM images confirm the formation of the helical nanowires. The results indicate that the solvent polarity has great influence in controlling of the self-assembly of organic molecules. The growth process demonstrates a promising pathway to investigate the self-assembling from achiral organic molecules to chiral aggregations.
Zuo
Zicheng
Z
Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Science (BNLMS), CAS Key Laboratory of Organic Solids, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, People's Republic of China.
Liu
Huibiao
H
Yin
Xiaodong
X
Zheng
Haiyan
H
Li
Yuliang
Y
D000873:Anthracenes / Q000737:chemistry; D019281:Dimerization; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry*; D012997:Solvents / Q000737:chemistry; D013237:Stereoisomerism; D013892:Thioxanthenes / Q000737:chemistry; D044004:Xanthones / Q000737:chemistry
D000873:Anthracenes; D012997:Solvents; D013892:Thioxanthenes; D044004:Xanthones; C034020:anthracene; C484911:thioxanthone